Nudity on screen matters, so why are we afraid of it?

"Nudity has never been a problem for me, as long as it's done beautifully."

Those are the words of 22-year-old Florence Pugh, speaking to the Radio Times about the BBC's Little Drummer Girl. In the adaptation of John le Carré's spy-thriller novel of the same name, Pugh plays Charlie, an actor on a working holiday in Greece who is subsequently sucked into the murky world of foreign espionage, rooted in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in the midst of the snooping and spy speak, there is romance.

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The sexual heat between Charlie and Alexander Skarsgard's Becker, a mysterious Israeli intelligence officer, is an antidote to the narrative's harder edges – and that surface flirtation rapidly expands into something more, in turn posing a particular challenge of its own: how do you deal with on-screen nudity in 2018?

BBC/Ink Factory/The Little Drummer Girl Distribution Limited.

In a post-#MeToo climate, there has begun a noticeable shift in how we perceive and portray female characters on screen and the women who play them – and rightly so. There is no disputing the need for change, no counter-argument or devil's advocate to progress. But there can be a danger of responding in the wrong way, mixing in risk aversion with the revisions.

Speaking about her latest role, Pugh explained that intimate moments in The Little Drummer Girl had been tempered for the US share of its audience: "America is quite scared of bums. And nipples. We had to make sure there were no bums and nipples out. I don't know why. Such strange people.

"There was this one scene where Alex and I were under the duvet and supposedly naked. But halfway through the scene, director [Park Chan-wook] cut filming and stated, 'Florence, you've got to hide your nipples more!'

"We did it again, and again I hear, 'CUT! CUT! Florence! It looks like you're hiding your nipples.' I'm like, 'Arrrgh! Just let me get my breasts out, I don't care!' But America does care!"

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BBCInk Factory/The Little Drummer Girl Distribution Limited

Nestled snugly in the most coveted of viewing slots (Sunday, 9pm), The Little Drummer Girl is a drama that many people will watch with their parents and older children, so it's understandable from a production perspective why bums and nipples are left to the imagination.

But they shouldn't be.

Demonising nakedness turns our skin into a forbidden fruit, both grotesque and taboo, to be shunned and feared. While we shouldn't indulge nudity for nudity's sake, show-runners and production companies are running the risk of sanitising drama, and excluding those human elements – and one way or another, we've literally all got them, people – is a mistake that will harm the creative process and in turn, the viewing experience.

Sally4Ever couldn't be more different to the BBC's latest big-budget drama if it tried, from its tone to its nakedness. Julia Davis's lesbian sitcom is peppered with myriad toe-curling, grotesque moments that could never be described as "done beautifully".

Towards the end of the first episode, Sally (Catherine Shepherd) and Emma (Julia Davis) have sex after a substantial build-up and there are nipples and bums aplenty. They're there, staring you right in the face, but as carnal as that moment is for Sally, who fully realises that this is what she wants and not to marry her sad sap of a fiancé, it's hilarious.

There are bodily fluids and toe insertions and the nudity is used as a comedy vehicle. It's an integral part of the moment, and the scene would have fallen flat without it.

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Sophie Mutevelian/Sky UK Limited

The beauty in Davis's direction lies in its humour and the awkward, unflattering details that constitute being a real human being. TV will never stop needing to capture the moments that make us squirm for all of the right reasons, because through them we see ourselves as we really are, whether it's two people losing their virginity and not knowing how to move their bodies or what to do with their nakedness, or a couple who have been married for 50 years, resplendent in all their saggy, wrinkled glory.

There is no obvious surface beauty to any of those things, but they're real, so why airbrush it or remove it altogether as The Little Drummer Girl has?

Nudity doesn't have to be sexualised. Game of Thrones hasn't shied away from sex scenes showcasing both the male and female form – though more female than male at the beginning, admittedly, and often for no serious purpose. But it took an entirely different approach with Cersei's "SHAME!" walk through King's Landing, which no-one could accuse of titillation.

In The Leftovers, Reverend Matt Jamison (Christopher Eccleston) removes his clothes and is locked in a pillory with the word "repent" carved into its wood. They are punishments designed to invoke shame, and the presentation of their naked bodies is wholly devoid of carnality.

HBO

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Because nakedness can, of course, be entirely asexual. For the most part it is mundane – removing your clothes to shower or catching your reflection in the bedroom mirror. Pugh expressed concern that by editing nakedness out of TV, we're slowly being confronted with a skewed version of the world, and that is dangerous.

"There's a reason why there's a problem with bodies," she added.

"It's because you never actually get to see any normal versions of them."

We all came into this world wearing nothing. Nudity isn't a sin, and while it can be both funny and tender, it is also the most natural thing in the world – so let's embrace it for what it is.

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